LYNDORA — A local Catholic youth group skipped its annual mission trip to West Virginia last week and elected to have a “staycation” doing good works in Butler County.

The Jesus Alive & Living Butler District Youth Group is made up of members in sixth through 12th grade from St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Christopher's at the Lake, St. Michael the Archangel and St. Fidelis Roman Catholic churches and Butler Catholic School.

“We have 45 altogether between teens and adults. We have adult mentors to teach them how to use the tools,” said Chris Williams, group director.

Those are important skills to have because the Jesus Alive members engaged in a mission trip in their own backyard.

From July 28 through Aug. 1, the group bunked down at the Net Outreach Building, 100 Center Ave., and spent the week working on projects in Butler County instead of going to Elk View, W.Va., as it has in the past.

“We decided to keep the funds here and give the kids a greater awareness of the needs in our own community,” said Williams.

Groups of teens and adults worked on building wheelchair ramps, landscaping, laying flooring, rehanging doors and even remodeling a bathroom.

Williams said the youth group takes work request applications from all the parishes. She visits the sites to “determine which we can handle based on the adult skill set that we had.”

“We choose the projects based on the applications,” said Williams, “especially health or age-related issues.”

The youth group stages bake sales, hoagie sales and other fundraising projects to buy materials needed for the projects.

“We're on our ninth project,” said Williams as a group worked to complete a storage center last week at the Dunbar Community Center, 501 Fairground Hill Road.

Williams said Jesus Alive members started each day at the Net Outreach Building with a 7:30 a.m. prayer and breakfast, then separated into groups to go to various work sites.

After having dinner and an evening prayer, Williams said the teens had an evening activity which could range from helping to feed the needy at Rotary Park to taking in a BlueSox game.

The week ended with a noon Mass Aug. 1 at St. Peter Roman Catholic Church, 127 Franklin St.

McKenna Kennedy, 15, of Portersville, a Slippery Rock High School student said, “This is my first mission trip. I was with the bathroom renovation. I helped hang drywall and helped put the floor in because it had sunk four or five inches.”

McKenna said she isn't even Catholic. She attends Grace Church in Cranberry Township.

“My friends invited me and I though it would be fun,” she said.

“We're certainly open to any teen who wants to help,” Williams said.

Lauren Williams, 13, who goes to Slippery Rock Middle School, counts this as her fifth mission.

“I just think it is really fun to get to know the people we work for and see how this will affect their lives,” she said. “It's only a week of our lives, but it will affect them forever.”

She mentioned one of the group's projects was building a wheelchair ramp at the house of a nursing home patient anxious to return home.

“We're giving him access to his family. We're giving him access to his home,” Lauren said.

Kristian Sherman, 23, of Highfield, an adult mentor, who's a 2009 Butler High graduate entering St. Paul Seminary later this month, said, “This is a lot better because there are people in the town who need help. Why go to the Dominican Republic or Africa when there's people right in your backyard who you can help?”

Bill Halle of the Grace Youth and Family Foundation who was assisting at the Dunbar Center, said, “This is a fantastic bunch of young people who give you lots of hope for the future.”

He said the group members had done everything from install coat hooks to filling book bags with school supplies during their week.

“The great thing about teens is that they can figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives based on what they've seen or they've experienced here. They can get their life's calling through this,” Williams said.